As the lame-duck session of the 112th Congress begins, millions of Americans are looking to the elected members of the 113th Congress to fix a host of problems ailing the country. The economy and job creation aside, one of the most pressing issues is reining in out-of-control federal bureaucracies. The Environmental Protection Agency comes to mind, as does the Department of Agriculture's promotion of GM foods.

But additionally concerning is the rapid expansion of the size, scope and reach of the Transportation Security Administration, which continues to usurp authority and trample constitutional rights of more and more Americans - especially those who aren't flying.

The TSA and its mother agency, the Department of Homeland Security, was hurriedly established during the harried, hysterical weeks following the 9/11 attacks. Once designed to replace private airport security firms that were blamed for allowing the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists to slip past checkpoints and take over four commercial airliners with razor blades, the TSA has since grown into a regulatory, bureaucratic behemoth that now claims jurisdiction over other modes of travel, including bus and train stations.

Resistance is not futile. I believe that if they go with chip embedded papers, that many among us will find ways to hack and modify the chips or falsify the data. Not only that, some of us will find ways to hack the scanners and databases and corrupt them to the point of being useless.

Cameras in the US break. A lot. Besides, a hoodie, with a bunch of IR LEDs around the face can't be seen as light by the naked eye, but tends to wash out modern cameras to the extent ID can't be made. ;)

I did electronic warfare for a living back in the old, old days. There nothing technical that doesn't have a countermeasure.

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